Blues and R&B 45s of the ’50s (book)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Es­ti­mated reading time is 2 minutes.

The se­ries of ar­ti­cles about the books I have pub­lished have a loose chronology and nar­ra­tive that makes the most sense if read in this order:

1.  Rock & Roll Record Al­bums Price Guide (1985)
2.  Elvis Presley Record Price Guide (1985)
3.  A Touch Of Gold – Elvis Presley Price Guide (1990)
4.  Gold­mine’s Price Guide to Col­lectible Record Al­bums (1st edi­tion, 1991)
5.  Gold­mine’s Price Guide to Col­lectible Jazz Al­bums (1992)
6.  Gold­mine’s Rock’n Roll 45RPM Record Price Guide (1994) 
7.  Gold­mine’s Price Guide to Col­lectible Record Al­bums (5th edi­tion, 1996)
8.  Blues And Rhythm & Blues 45s Of The ’50s (2000)

Links to each book are listed at the end of this article.


IN 2000, THINGS CHANGED. I was sev­eral years re­moved from O’­Sul­livan Wood­side and Gold­mine and Krause Pub­li­ca­tions. So I pub­lished The Umphred Guide To Blues And Rhythm & Blues 45s Of The ’50s under my own im­print, Monaural Press. I did it the old-fashioned way, paying a printer to make the books.

When I first con­ceived of this book, my first—and only choice—for co-author was the leg­endary Val Shively. His used-record store R&B Records had been a fix­ture in the Philadel­phia area for decades, and his knowl­edge of the rhythm & blues field was legendary!

So I trekked to Upper Darby, Penn­syl­vania (look it up) to en­treat Val to join me. He turned me down but sent me on my way to Grant’s Pass, Oregon.

To read more about what hap­pened next, click here.

 

NU RB 300

As the first printing of The Umphred Guide To Blues And Rhythm & Blues 45s Of The 50s was for a lim­ited edi­tion, ad­vanced copy, it did not have fin­ished cover art­work. In­stead, it looked like this: I hand-stamped “Ad­vance Copy” on each book. With few ex­cep­tions, all copies of this book look like this—not that most of you will ever see a copy.

My other books

There are eight ar­ti­cles on this site ex­plaining the var­ious books I pub­lished for record col­lec­tors. They are best read in the fol­lowing order, which is roughly chronological:

1.  O’Sullivan Woodside’s Rock & Roll Record Al­bums Price Guide
2.  O’Sullivan Woodside’s Elvis Presley Record Price Guide
3.  Goldmine’s Price Guide to Col­lectible Record Al­bums (1st edition)
4.  Goldmine’s Price Guide to Col­lectible Record Al­bums (5th edition)
5.  Goldmine’s Rock’n Roll 45RPM Record Price Guide
6.  Goldmine’s Price Guide to Col­lectible Jazz Albums
7.  A Touch Of Gold – Elvis Record & Mem­o­ra­bilia Price Guide
8. 
Blues and R&B 45s of the ’50s Price Guide